Caristopolis
Caristopolis 'is the capital of Lasterus, located in the Federal Capital District between the states of East, West and North Caristo. With an urban population of 7,400,000, it is Lasterus's second largest city as defined by city limits and the center of the largest metropolitan area; this makes it the seventh largest city in the world and a center of global economy and culture. Along with Marshall City, it is one of the two "Great Cities" of Lasterus, and despite having a nominally smaller urban population, it is the center of a far larger urban agglomeration and is typically regarded as having the larger cultural and political impact. Caristopolis is located on the tip of the Bay of Caristo, at the mouth of the Merin River in the center of a highly fertile region of warm temperate coastal forest. Various settlements existed around the bay during the pre-Anglean era of the Lasteri civilization, most of them existing as city-states; however, the region came to be known as Caristo, and, when the Anglean Empire conquered the various states of the region in 802, it created the Province of Caristo and founded the city of Caristopolis as its capital. The old walled Anglean city remains at the center of the modern-day metropolis, which has grown organically out from the walls and spilled across the Merin River. Caristopolis was one of the largest cities in Anglea and remained Lasterus's largest city and cultural capital until the nineteenth century, when the massive growth of Marshall City first challenged Caristopolis's dominance in Lasterus. However, Caristopolis remains seen as the cultural capital of Lasterus, and a cultural capital of the world. It is famous for its beautiful old streets and neighborhoods as well as the massive high-rise buildings in the Financial District. It has traditionally been Lasterus's largest Outer Ocean port, and it has been a center for world immigration; by consequence, a large portion of Caristopolis's population are immigrants, and the city has grown to be very multicultural. Along with Varnessia, Monopodia, Correfuscidia and Ptolomaise, Caristopolis is often considered to be a capital of world culture. People from Caristopolis are known as ''Caristopolites ''(or, colloquially, ''Caries) and the demonym is Caristopolitan. History The region around Caristopolis has been continually inhabited for thousands of years. The Merin River was long the homeland of kingdoms such as Annaoiscthe, Kalaszkas, and, most notably, Caoircthe (pronounced Share-is-tah), for which the region took its name. The sites of several ancient cities of the region lie in the city and around the metropolitan region, including the completely destroyed site of Caoircthe's historic capital Lenn Corain, north of the city at the northern end of the Corain Woods. By the turn of the ninth century, what had once been a powerful kingdom of Caoircthe had fallen into disunity, and the region had a number of competing kings. This made it relatively easy for Emperor Daniel to sweep through the area in 804, crushing the several competing Caoircthe states. The initial capital was built in a city-state farther up the Merin, not far from Lenn Corain, at that time called Eotháin (Anglicized as Othan). Daniel appointed a local governor, Lenocht Saorc, who split power with the Anglean viceroy, a young second son of a high aristocratic family named Cato Manomax. Manomax exerted an often dominating hand and attempted to suppress the teaching of local languages in schools, leading to a rebellion that Manomax and a large Anglean army would crush. Eotháin was largely crushed and the capital was moved downriver to a new, centrally planned city, which Manomax would name Caristopolis, invoking the traditional Rhamidic-Anglean naming custom for cities. easily defeated Karisto and the other regional kingdoms. He choose to found the provincial capital of Caristo just south of Anstkje, on the ocean, and named it Caristopolis by traditional Anglean naming custom. As a major crossroads and Outer Ocean trading port, Caristopolis quickly grew from a small site of Anglean governance to one of the empire's major cities, particularly as natives from the surrounding areas moved toward the city and increased its size, reaching a population of around 800,000 at its height. By the reign of Emperor Samuel, the city is estimated to have been around 25% Angleans who ruled over a much larger native population, who largely lived in the outer parts of the city. The inner Anglean walled city was decorated with grand halls and wide boulevards, many of which exist today; the Avenue of the Republic was once the city's main Anglean road, and many of the buildings than line it date back to Anglean times. These include the massive white-pillared ''Doma ''that housed the Anglean governor of Caristo and would later serve as the capitol building of Caristo. The ''Doma ''still exists and has become a museum and tourist site. As the city grew and developed its own unique culture, it developed one of the first of the many nationalist movements that would plague the late Anglean Empire. The non-noble residents of the region began to become educated, and resented the rule of their far-off imperial overlords. After the Revolt of 1094, Caristo was allowed to elect its own governors, which provided the city with some degree of local autonomy. However, it still resented paying allegiance to the emperor and supplying him with troops, leading to a number of revolutions. Government and Boroughs The city of Caristopolis is divided into sixteen boroughs that together form the Metropolitan City of Caristopolis, which is coterminous with the Lasterian Capital Territory and has a total population of 7,500,000. Each borough has some degree of local government but is also represented in the Metropolitan Assembly, the '''Old City Caristopolis' Old City, officially called the Borough of the Ancient City of Caristopolis, is located on the bend of the Myrren River, and surrounded on three sides by water. It still contains some remnants of the Anglean walls that surrounded the ancient city, and many of its boulevards and monuments date back to the Anglean Empire. Underneath the Old City lie remnants of even older settlement, including the famous Crypt of Arbó - a massive underground space held up by columns that was once covered in vast and beautiful artwork that has mostly disappeared, leaving only remnants and the skeleton of a massive underground temple. Downtown The area generally referred to as "downtown," technically the Borough of Asterley for the town that was there in Anglean times, faces south along the river Myrren and is notable for its taller buildings and more modern streets. It grew from an outer area of the city to the center of business and commerce during the industrial revolution, when the city's population exploded and wealthy tycoons such as William Byron gave large sums of money toward the development of the neighborhood. Downtown contains a number of the modern city's landmarks. One border of the neighborhood is at the sprawling and wild Byron Park, which reaches all of the way to Aren Park on its other side; facing the park is the Grand Opera, a spectacular building that hosts operas, plays, ballets, and musical performances. Beyond that are the famous streets of Broadway, Aleister, and Park, which are known for their high-class shopping and expensive restaurants. Many of the buildings on these streets date back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and include a number of the world's earliest high-rise towers. Closer to the water are glassier structures and the so-called "business district." In stark opposition is Redmont Street, which is lined with entertainment venues, including concert spaces, comedy clubs, and dance halls, and is famous for its active nightlife. Inverness Inverness was for a long time a separate city located on a hill across the river from Caristopolis, centered around a fort that helped protect the city from invaders. While it has been integrated into the city, it is still a very distinct part of the city. The borough is separated into two parts: Inverness Rock and Inverness Woods. Inverness Rock is located on the hill, which rises up and then crashes down to the water in a series of cliffs. At the top of the rock, overlooking the city, is the Castle of Inverness, a massive stone structure that has become a popular tourist attraction and the site of rotating art and history exhibitions. Around it is a vibrant and wealthy neighborhood that sits mostly atop the hill but also straddles the cliffs and ends in a port by the water. It is the location of the main campus of the University of Caristopolis, a large private research university that makes the area into a bit of a college town; while it was traditionally considered to be inhabited primarily by students and artists, rising land values have forced wealthier residents into the region, although it is still considered to be much younger and more artistic than its sister neighborhood, Inverness Woods. Inverness Woods is famous as one of the wealthiest communities in Lasterus. It lies in the lush valley behind Inverness Rock, and is one of the only neighborhoods of the city that is not distinctly urban and contains mostly single-family homes. These homes are largely walled-off mansions with yards and suburban facilities - its privacy, quietness and proximity both to Inverness Rock and the center of the city have made it one of the nation's most desirable places to live. It is slightly larger in area than Inverness Rock but has only about a tenth of the population, housing around 22,000 people, compared to Inverness Rock's 200,000. The median income of Inverness Rock is around 220,000 LSD a year, making it the third-richest community in Lasterus, after Astor, Caristo (also a suburb of Caristopolis) and White Mountain, Marshall. Sights and Tourism Caristopolis is Lasterus's most popular tourist sight and among the most visited cities in the world, with over fifteen million visitors annually. Its sights include: Historical * The Crypt of Arbó is a massive underground sept that would have lain beneath the main temple of the ancient Caoircthe religious site before the Anglean conquest. Its vaulted ceilings would once have been covered in elaborate artwork, and in its corners would have laid the sarcophagi of important ''caoiman ''(or shamans) along with three Caoircthe kings, the sons of Arbó Manx, to whom the aboveground temple was dedicated. Today, it is left relatively bare, leaving a stark and dramatic underground chamber, although the adjoining museum of ancient Caoircthe contains reconstructed models of the ancient temple. * The Crogarian Bridge, the world's largest surviving Anglean bridge, dating back to 872. The bridge dramatically crosses the river Merin to link Valross to the Old City, and consists of twenty vaulted arches, wide enough to allow carriages to pass one another in either direction. It has been fully pedestrianized since 2003. * The Drome, a magnificent Anglean building dating back to 842 and heavily restored several times that housed the Anglean governor and later served as a part of the royal residence of Caristo; today it houses the museum of the city, which houses Anglean, pre-Anglean, and early medieval relics related to the city including the historic imperial statues on the Crogarian Bridge, remnants from the Temple of Arbó, the grand Syccora Mosaic, and the Caristan crown jewels. *Castle Arix